Market research is the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data about a market, including consumer behavior, trends, and competitor activity, to inform business decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and overall market positioning, allowing companies to understand what customers want and need to stay competitive source
This guide gives an overview of the resources available to Columbia students and faculty for research in market research. The guide includes the demographic and geographic resources that provides the information of a potential market, their trends and customers' preferences.-
Consumer market research is the process of gathering data on a consumer goods market (personal-use goods and services such as toothpaste or retail sales). This includes information on the current and potential customers, as well as the competitive landscape of the market.
Primary research involves collecting data from the source (i.e. consumers) such as conducting surveys or focus groups. It can be very targeted, useful, time consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive.
Secondary research involves using data that has already been collected (e.g. statistics or market research reports). Because you do not control how or what data is collected, there may be times where you cannot find the exact type of information you want from secondary sources.
You can kind of think of it as primary research is watching a movie whereas secondary research is reading a review of the movie.
This guide will show you some secondary sources for consumer market research.
Who Collects This Data?
| Cost of data | Who collects it? | How do they get it? | Examples | |||
| Free or $ |
Government, NGOs | Surveys, legal requirements |
Census, UN, International Trade Administration |
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| Free or $ |
Regulatory agencies | Reporting requirements | National Credit Union Administration |
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| $$ |
Trade associations | Member surveys, government data, news |
National |
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| $$$$ |
Private market research firms | Government data, surveys of customers and manufacturers, news | Nielsen, Gartner |